Sunday, December 01, 2013

Antiquing Side Trip!

There is a fabulous antique mall NOT THAT FAR from the airport ---and since I was dropping Dad off at a bit before 2pm, there was plenty of time left before closing for me to pull in and take a good long un-hurried browse!

You’ll never know what you will find – sometimes it’s slim pickin’s –and other times it’s “What were they THINKING!?!”

And then sometimes – it’s just a nice wander down memory lane.

All the Christmas decorations are in the process of being put out, if they aren’t out already – and it is always fun to see the real VINTAGE Christmas stuff….

Do you remember aluminum Christmas trees?

And do you enjoy just browsing at displays like this?

Ohhhh..fun!

I am looking for some side tables. I need one by the chair I sew at in the family room at Quilt Villa. There has to be a SOMETHING next to the chair so I can have my basket with thread, scissors, pins, needles, needle threader and seam ripper handy for hand work.

The guest rooms can also each use a bed side table….if I had it MY way it would be a treadle machine bedside table – but I promised to reign it in! LOL!

I turned a corner and found a Winding Ways!

1930s prints, plaids and stripes…LOVELY!

How fun this must have been for the maker to work on. I know there is a Winding Ways quilt in my future – and this is one I plan to do with Inklingo. To have THESE shapes with sewing lines printed on the fabric would be awesome! Things that would be a pain in the patootie to rotary cut…I’m all game for this.

If you want to see what this looks like in Inklingo, click HERE. There is a search box at the upper right. Type Winding Ways in the box and hit enter. AWESOME! The question is…will I do it in 4.5” or 6”? Maybe 6” is best for me to start with.

This quilt didn’t have any borders or binding..the front and backing were both turned toward the inside and just hand sewn closed.

Antique Coverlet!

I love antique coverlets, and have often thought of breaking this pattern down into patchwork….

Wonky Wonderfulness!

There were 3 different kinds of blocks in this quilt, all different sizes as you can see by the compensation of the different widths of sashing! Who made it and why? Who knows! And those seams in the sashings….they seemed to be SEAMS in clothing or something….

Crazy and fun! Definitely a MAKE DO to MAKE WARM.

It had a feed sack backing brought around and hand stitched to the front as binding. Wouldn’t you love to know who made this? More than one generation maybe?

Lovely 6 pointed star with hexie center.

Love that yellow background!

This one would also work up great as a hand-piecing project in inklingo!

IMPOSTERS!!!

These kinds of things just get my dander up. EARLY quilt?!? $185?? It’s recent, and Chinese made. It’s not rare, it’s not unique, it’s not antique – it’s….imported.

No binding, bad stitching. Buyer Beware!

This is not the way an “EARLY” quilt would be finished.

Old Grey Goose!

Though it doesn’t look like a goose to me, does it you? Depending on how you look at it, it reminds me of those road kill turtles we used to find in Texas. But I love this one! Mostly plaids and stripes, and the blocks are GIANT.

Close up. Love that melon-salmon color, and stripes and plaids that go every which direction!

Aunt Sukey’s Choice!

This one was two similar kinds of feed sacks. They must have bought ENOUGH feed sacks to be able to make this quilt with just two patterns of fabric in alternating rows. The quilting is all cross hatching.

Very Sweet!

1950s-1960s scrappy 9 patch!

Love the red Nordic-looking print in the 9 patches and inner border. Everything else is scrap bag in the 9 patches!

No machines came home, but I did spy some:

Poor old rusted beyond hope boat anchor!

Early class 15 –see the scrolled face plate?

Class 15s were common, and GREAT workhorse machines. You can also guess-date these by the appearance of the face plate much like featherweights. The scrolly ones were earlier. Replacement bobbin area covers can be found to replace the missing one.

This one has a striated plate..decals in much better shape.

Same decal pattern ,but newer machine –perhaps 1950s.

Both of these have “potted” motors meaning they are not belt driven, the motor is up against the hand wheel.

Both machines were priced at $50 each, but BOTH were missing wiring, plugs and foot pedals…so not a great deal there.

Martha Washington style sewing cabinet!

This didn’t come home either, but it was FULL of old sewing notions, bits and baubles – and one of the side compartments actually held yarn and knitting needles and a project in progress. Oh my goodness. I really wished these things could speak! The price was more than I wanted to pay, even though it would be a great side table by a chair…

I DID find a perfect little table! And it is in the back of Shamu ready for me to go back up to the cabin today with my friend Lisa. I’ll get a photo of it from its new home…be watching for that post to come later!

I’ll be posting our Mystery Monday Link-Up from Quilt Villa! Be ready for that post to go live on Monday morning –I’m so excited to see what everyone has been up to with their Part 1 units for Celtic Solstice!

26 comments:

The antique center looks fun. Love the quilts and thanks for letting us know the names of the blocks. I'm not too well up on all their names so am learning a lot from your posts. I agree with the "early" Chinese fake. We have lots of those in the UK but luckily they don't seem to try to pass them off as old too often. Can't wait for your next post and looking forward to seeing your new purchase.Regards, Linda in England

Love antiques and those quilts were great to see, except for the "early" Chinese fake.

I have several antique machines, two are treadles that I brought back home from when we were stationed in Germany, one is a Pfaff and the other a Singer. I need to see if I can get the hang of them and possibly work on the Celtic Solstice on the Pfaff.

Thanks for sharing your quality fun, I love antique ing and " multitasking", just don't get to do it much. Thanks for All you share, I am working my way through your free patterns and totally enjoying it. As for he gripers and complainers pay no attention, some folks just can't be pleased no matter what and just seem to enjoy being miserable.

and complainers, please don't take it to heart, some folks just can't be pleased no matter what one does.

Love seeing all the quilts, but like you said, buyer beware! People just don't know what is out there unless it is from someone with a textile history background. And that Martha Washington table, that was wonderful. Can't wait to see what you brought home.

Ooh that Martha Washington is just like mine! I got mine in Eureka Springs Arkansas probably at least 10-12 years ago for $85..the owner of the place had no idea what he had there..it too was full of antique notions and sewing stuff. I have it in my bathroom and have never taken the stuff out of it because it is so much fun to look through.

Your post reminded me of a visit my Dad made to an 'antique' store where the man assured Dad that the table he was looking at was made by hand hundreds of years ago. It was perfectly square (measuring tape in the pocket...) and smooth on the bottom the way wood is when it goes through a planer.

The intent is either to deceive or shows a lack of knowledge. Either way, it's concerning.

Thanks for taking us with your to the Antique mall.You would be surprised to see that "boat anchor" turned into a beauty by some of the talented machine people over at the Quilting Board internet group. I am amazed what the right supplies, the knowledge and some hard work will do to those old sewing machines.

Beautiful quilts at the Antique Mall. Someday I'll have an antique sewing machine all my own. Sorry that others have been whining about the mystery quilt directions. I appreciate the opportunity to try something new (Tri-Recs). Thanks for all you do. Can't wait to see what everyone else is doing with the first step in the mystery quilt.

The Winding Ways quilt really jumped off the screen at me -- it's fabulous! And you're so right -- you'll love making it using Inklingo. Linda's tips and tricks on the stitching sequence make it oh, so easy to make perfect blocks with wonderfully flat centres.

I was lucky enough to get a Martha Washington table from EACH of my grandmothers! They are not exactly the same size, but they are on either side of my front door. You cannot tell the diff. Nice piece of family sewing history and prized by me!

Oh, Bonnie, you find the best Antique shops! I never find pretty quilts and machines like that. Oh my gosh, my mother had a sewing cabinet like that! I think she got it for really cheap at an auction place right near where we used to live. I don't know what happened to it, but I wish I had it! Love going along with you on your antique jaunts.